McCarty faces sex accusations from 4 women
Women say they were drugged and assaulted, court documents show.
Johnathan McCarty — who prosecutors say is an alternative suspect in a child sex crime that led to another man’s conviction — is now being investigated amid accusations he drugged and sexually assaulted four women, according to newly obtained court documents and confirmed by prosecutors.
A filing this week in Williamson County state District Court by Greg Kelley’s attorney provides no additional information about the allegations, such as when or where the attacks are alleged to have happened. Lawyer Keith Hampton said the filing is based on information from a law enforcement report he has reviewed, which provided few details of what the four women say happened to them.
Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick said, “The Texas Rangers are actively investigating all allegations, includ- ing those brought forth by Keith Hampton, and one of those allegations is that Johnathan McCarty sexually assaulted four women.”
He declined to comment further.
Authorities learned about the women’s allegations after the American-Statesman reported in May that the Texas Rangers are investigating whether it was McCarty who assaulted a 4-yearold boy, not Kelley.
The new filing comes amid the first public statements from Austin attorney Kellie Bailey, who is representing McCarty. She says Kelley’s legal team is using McCarty as “a scapegoat, a convenient distraction” and said that McCarty didn’t assault the boy.
“I have absolutely no idea what really happened,” she said. “But we will not stand idle and give justice to one but injustice to another.”
Bailey also condemned the release of sensitive law enforcement information by Hampton pertaining to aspects of the investigation, including details about the sexual assault investigation involving the four accusers. A judge has sealed most documents pertaining to the investigation.
“By violating a court order and publicly referencing sealed documents that may contain unproven, unrelated allegations, Mr. Hampton is showing how desperately he needs a distraction from evidence against his client,” she said.
Prosecutors reopened the child sexual assault case this spring after receiving new information, much of it collected by Hampton, that raised questions about whether Kelley had been wrongfully convicted. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence on a charge of super aggravated sexual assault.
The former Leander High School football star was charged in 2013 with assaulting the boy at an in-home day care facility operated by McCarty’s mother. Kelley was staying at the home because his parents were seriously ill.
Kelley and his supporters have maintained his innocence in the three years since his conviction, and Kelley told the Statesman in an interview in June that “I didn’t have a fair investigation. I believe I was unfairly targeted.”
Court documents by Hampton allege that McCarty had photographs of nude children that he thought he had deleted on his cellphone and that McCarty has confessed to at least two people that he abused the 4-year-old.
In his latest filing, Hampton also included several new pieces of information that he hadn’t previously disclosed that he hopes raise doubts of Kelley’s guilt — and that point toward McCarty.
They include an online comment by McCarty in which he appears to have written “my dream boat” on a video of a 7-year-old girl dancing.
He also said McCarty posted a picture on Facebook of a boy who attended the day care facility. “The boy is posing in the bathroom, has no shirt and appears to have just showered,” the filing said.
But in a written statement, Bailey says evidence shows McCarty didn’t carry out the crime.
According to Bailey, based on measurements of the height of a bed where the boy said the assault occurred, McCarty would have been physically unable to carry out the assault in the way the accuser described. Bailey said the boy described certain physical attributes of his perpetrator, which McCarty doesn’t have.
The boy also described the person who assaulted him as wearing SpongeBob SquarePants pajama bottoms, and Hampton said in court documents that McCarty was known to wear such pants.
However, Bailey said McCarty’s parents gave Hampton access to McCarty’s bedroom because they wanted to help exonerate Kelley, whom she said they have supported throughout the case. No such pajamas were found among McCarty’s possessions, she said.
She added that a cellphone that Hampton and law enforcement have recently been trying to access also was purchased 10 days before McCarty’s arrest and has no meaningful evidence.
McCarty remains in Williamson County Jail on a drug-related violation of probation charge with bail set at $450,000.
Kelley is being held in the same jail without bail, as he and his attorneys prepare for a key Aug. 3 hearing in the legal challenge of his conviction.